1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to single-dose pill crushers and pill pulverizers that are used to crush large pills into smaller pieces. More particularly, the present invention relates to pill crushers and pulverizers that are motorized.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many medications, vitamins, nutritional supplements and the like come in the form of pills. Pills, however, come in a large variety of sizes. Some pills are so large that many people cannot comfortably swallow them whole. This is especially true for the very young, the very old and those with diseases of the throat or mouth.
If a person needs to take a pill and is unable or unwilling to swallow the pill, that pill must be broken into small pieces that can be swallowed or pulverized into a powder that can be mixed with food or drink. A pill can be crushed and/or pulverized by placing the pill in a pharmacist's mortar and pestle. However, very few people have access to a mortar and pestle. Furthermore, even if a person did have a mortar and pestle, such a bulky device could not be comfortably carried from place to place.
Many people who desire to crush a pill place the pill in a bag or folded piece of paper and then crush the pill by striking the pill with a hard object, such as the back of a spoon. Of course, such a crushing technique does work. However, the crushing of the pill is rarely uniform and some of the material of the pill is lost in the messy operation.
To help a person crush a pill, small handheld pill crushers have been developed. The prior art handheld pill crushers are typically cylindrical in shape and have two sections that join together with a threaded connection. A pill is placed in between the two sections and the two sections are screwed together. As the two sections of the pill crusher come together, the pill is compressed and crushed. Of course, the degree to which the pill is crushed is dependent upon how much manual force is applied to the pill crusher. Such prior art pill crushers are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,549 to Sherman, entitled Tablet Pulverizer.
As has been previously mentioned, pill crushers are commonly used by the very old and the infirm. Such people typically do not have a lot of arm and hand strength. Consequently, the ability of such people to use manually operated pill crushers is limited. To assist such persons, small motorized pill crushers have been developed. One such prior art pill crusher is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,424 to Marshall, entitled Battery Operated Pill Crusher. In this pill crusher, a container is provided that has a piston that rises and falls in the container under the power of a battery operated motor. A pill is placed in the container on top of the piston. A lid is then placed over the container and the piston is raised in the container. The pill is then crushed between the rising piston and the lid.
However, problems persist with motorized pill crushers. First, the moving piston is located below the pill being crushed. As such, dust from the crushed pill can become trapped between the interior walls of the container and the sides of the moving container. Thus, pill material is lost and pill material from one pill can contaminate the crushed material from a different pill that is crushed at a different time. Second, dust from the crushed pills can pass the piston and accumulate at the bottom of the container. Over time, the pill material can host bacteria and/or interfere with the motor workings of the pill crusher.
Lastly, handheld pill crushers have only limited space for batteries, thus small batteries are used. Small batteries cannot provide much power. As a consequence, the power available to the motor is limited. Using this limited power, the pill crusher may have to crush a hard pill. In prior art pill crushers, flat crushing surfaces are typically used. This disperses the crushed pill over a wide area and makes it hard for a small motor to generate the crushing pressure needed to fully pulverize a hard pill.
As such, a need therefore exists for a motorized pill crusher that does not harbor contaminants and is capable of fully pulverizing a hard pill using a limited electrical power source. This need is met by the present invention as it is described and claimed below.